"Enter a whole new world, with new Pokémon to capture, train and battle! Meet Professor Elm and get the all-new Poké Gear, including map, radio, cell phone and clock. Set the clock then watch as day turns to night and events take place in real time -— and be sure to keep an eye out for Pokémon that come out only at night!"

— Blurb on the back of the boxes of Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions

The year is 1996. A new IP from Nintendo and Game Freak called Pocket Monsters Red & Green is released in Japan to immense critical and commercial acclaim, becoming an international sensation after its release in the West as Pokémon Red & Blue. Recognizing the commercial potential a success like this brought, the developers decide to create a sequel; like its predecessor, this sequel was developed for the Game Boy. Unlike its predecessor, however, it experienced some Schedule Slip that motivated the developers to shift the project to the Game Boy Color, for which it was eventually released. Aided by the late Satoru Iwata (who would later become Nintendo's president), Game Freak moves the series into the "second generation," unveiling a new region filled with more Mons, threats, and challenges to await players.

Set three years after the events of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, a young trainer sets out to collect the eight badges of Johto (based on the Kansai region of Japan as well as the western part of the Chubu region) and challenge the Elite Four so that they can earn their own place in the hall of fame. Along the way, however, they have to contend with a callous thief and the reemerging threat of Team Rocket.

Gold and Silver introduced many new concepts to the series, like an In-Universe Game Clock (with certain Mons appearing or evolving during certain times of day), the ability to equip Pokémon with items, rare alternate colorations, genders for Pokémon outside the Nidoran lines (though some species are still genderless), and the ability to breed baby Pokémon. It also expanded and reconfigured numerous other gameplay elements, like the addition of two new elemental types (bring the grand total to 17!), splitting the "Special" stat into separate attack and defense scores, and new skills designed to give other elemental types a more level field to battle against the previously unbalanced Psychic-type.

One year later, an Updated Re-release appeared: Crystal. On top of a new subplot revolving around Suicune, a slight graphics bump, and other minor differences, Crystal marked the debut of the Purely Aesthetic Gender option in the series, offering players the choice of a male or female player instead of simply giving them a male character. The franchise was supposed to end there (Tsunekazu Ishihara stated in an "Iwata Asks" interview that the developers saw Generation II as too difficult to outdo at the time), but the intense critical and commercial acclaim the games received convinced Nintendo and Game Freak to continue making games.

In late 2009, these games were remade into HeartGold and SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS. Unlike the remakes of the first generation games (which mostly updated them to Generation III's mechanics and graphics), these remakes pulled elements from everywhere else in the series; not only did they include the added plot points from Crystal, the original storyline was further expanded upon, pulling in cameos and Continuity Nods from later regions. New minigames were added via the Pokéathlon and PokéWalker, and one of Yellow's main gimmicks was brought into play, allowing trainers to let one of their Pokémon run free behind them and interact freely with them instead of remaining on standby like the rest of the player's Party in My Pocket. Major changes were made to some areas as well, such as the addition of a new Safari Zone (noticeably missing from the original versions), which can be accessed even before beating the game, and new dungeon and Gym layouts.

On June 6, 2017, it was announced the Gold & Silver versions (but not Crystal, inexplicably* Datamining has revealed some patches for a Crystal version, so it should be coming soon in the future) would be re-released for the Virtual Console via Nintendo eShop, adding the same features as the Virtual Console releases of their predecessors, including compatibility with Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter as well as wireless battling and trading.

The Iwata Asks interview for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions can be viewed here.

Animation Bump: Despite most Pokémon sprites suffering from color limitations, Parasect's sprite actually looks almost three-dimensional (helped by good use of dithered gradients and by Parasect's body being more or less of one color in the first place) .

Artifact Title: In Red, Blue and Yellow, Giovanni, a Ground-type specialist, was the leader of Viridian City Gym. In this game he has been replaced by Blue, who uses many different types of Pokémon, but the badge he hands over is still called the Earth Badge.* This isn't the case in Japanese, where the Kanto Badges are named after colors — and since Blue is known as Green in Japan, it's only fitting he gives the Green Badge!

The Artifact: In Red, Blue, and Yellow, Route 23 was a long route containing eight checkpoints where the Players confirmed their badges to proceed to Victory road. It's made redundant here due to the introduction of a reception gate and the shrinking of Victory Road, to accommodate the fact that the League has to be accessible to two regions now. However, there is a small spit of land, seven steps across, in between Victory Road and the League still called Route 23 with nothing in it. In the remakes the route is reclassified as part of the League.

Audible Gleam: "Shiny" Pokémon have this in order to distinguish them from normal ones if the games are being played on the original monochrome Game Boy system instead of the Game Boy Color. This feature was even kept in future games, where this trope would not have been needed to distinguish Shiny Pokémon.

Blackout Basement: Many caves such as the aptly named Dark Cave and Mt. Mortar are exceptionally dark, preventing the player from seeing anything except the sprites of the Player Character and NPCs. Using the move Flash HM will light up the cave to normal levels.

Boss-Only Level: The Olivine, Cinnabar, and Viridian Gyms have no puzzles or mook trainers, only their respective Leader to fight.

Boss Rush: Again, the Elite Four plus a Champion are the 5 elite trainers at the League one must confront to complete the main game, and again, you must deal with all of them in a row.

Breakout Character: Silver has actually gone on to become the most popular character of the generation. He ended up getting an expanded role in the remakes and Paul as an Expy in the anime.

Broken Bridge: There is a man in Mahogany that will stop you from heading to Blackthorn until Team Rocket takes over the Goldenrod Radio Tower. If you happen to try and go past Mahogany at any point before this he'll drop hints on what you have to do, mentioning Olivine, Cianwood, and the Pharmacy, referring to the sick Ampharos.

Cap: Unlike the other games in the series, stats cannot go above a value 999. In some cases, a glitch will cause the stat to roll over to single or double digits when attempting to go over that value.

Chaos Architecture: Kanto is pretty much the same as it was in Red and Blue...on the outside. However, several interiors for buildings and even caves have changed radically. For example, Victory Road no longer has a pathway with gates that require the eight Kanto badges to open, and the entrance has become a side-door into the new passage, and the Power Plant has been reduced to three rooms instead of the large abandoned complex it was in the early games. Even geographic features such as the Viridian Forest and the cave where Mewtwo could be found are now gone and Cinnabar Island has mostly been covered in a recently-erupted volcano that was nowhere to be seen in Red and Blue.

Even on the outside, there are some puzzling changes. In Red and Blue, the Indigo Plateau was shown on the town map as being to the northwest of Pewter City. In Gold and Silver it has somehow moved southward, and is now southwest of Pewter City, as shown on the Pokegear Map.

Circling Birdies: The new in-battle animation for when a Pokémon is confused features what appears to be bird head balloons circling around them. Notably, this is the first game where this trope is used for precisely that purpose; it would become a staple later on.

Combat Pragmatist: These games introduce the Dark-type, which often attack in very underhanded ways.

The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Lance's Aerodactyl has Rock Slide. Funnily enough, this is only illegal in these games; later games let it learn the move from Move Tutor, TM, and later as a level-up move.

Console Cameo: The playable character as well as the playable characters of the last games all have a Nintendo 64 in their rooms. Using the Mystery Gift option allows players to receive decorations for their rooms. This includes other Nintendo consoles released at the time, including the NES, SNES and the Virtual Boy.

At several points in the game, Team Rocket members talk about how they were disbanded 3 (in-game) years prior.

Blue mentions that he was once the Champion until he was defeated by Red. His Gym team is the same as his Champion team from those games, except without the starter.

Red, the player character from the first generation, is the True Final Boss of the game on the top of Mt. Silver. His team is comprised of the 3 Kanto Starters, Pikachu, the gift Eevee evolved into a Espeon, and a Snorlax (implied to be the one that doesn't show up when you traverse Kanto yourself, as there were two originally).

You can trade for the Rock/Ground-type Onix in Violet City or grab the same-typed Geodude from the nearby Dark Cave to deal with local Flying-type Gym Leader Falkner.

If you didn't grab a Geodude from Dark Cave, you can get more from Union Cave near Azalea Town to deal with Bug-type Gym Leader Bugsy. There's also the Electric-type Mareep from the previous Route, who has an advantage over Bugsy's Bug/Flying-type Scyther.

In Goldenrod City, you can trade a Drowzee (Gold and Silver and remakes) or Abra (Crystal) captured from Route 34 for the Fighting-type Machop to beat Normal-type Gym Leader Whitney. For a bonus, it is female, so it won't be hindered by her female Miltank's Attract.

To get to Blackthorn City, the location of Dragon-type Gym Leader Clair, you have to go through the Ice Path. Grabbing the Ice/Psychic-type Jynx or Ice/Ground-type Swinub there will help against the local Gym immensely. Alternatively you can use the previous Gym Leader's TM, the Ice-type attack Icy Wind, on a Water-type you may already have if you didn't/don't want to grab a new team member.

As in the original games, the Bug-types Caterpie (Gold exclusive) and Weedle (Silver exclusive) reprise their roles as this here. They're found just north of Cherrygrove City (the 2nd location the player will visit,) and evolve into their 3rd forms at a mere level 10, at which point they're much stronger than anything else early in the game.

In Violet City, you can trade an easy-to-acquire Bellsprout for an Onix. It will help with the first few Gyms, but by the time you hit Olivine its bad Attack stat becomes extremely detrimental.

You can trade an easy-to-acquire Drowzee for a Machop in Goldenrod City. Machop, a Fighting-type, is strong against the local Normal-type Gym Leader Whitney (though you're going to have to do a bit of Level Grinding with it). As a bonus, it is also female, meaning you won't have to deal with the hindrance of Miltank's Attract.

The player can take a very short detour to route 46, just north of the first route the player travels on, and acquire a Geodude, which has an advantage for the first four gyms and most of Team Rocket.

Death Mountain: There are three mountains that can be explored: Mt. Mortar, Mt. Moon, and Mt. Silver. For the most part, the only areas explored are the caves within the mountains.

The move Headbutt. It's a decently strong Normal-type attack with a Base Power of 70 and can cause opponents to flinch. It's obtained very early from an NPC in Ilex Forest and can be bought from the Goldenrod Department Store nearby, just after the 2nd Gym.

You can buy a Level 10 Abra at the Goldenrod City Game Corner for a modest price of 200 coins ($4000 normal currency). Unlike Red and Blue it won't need much babying, since you can buy the TMs for the Elemental Punches in the Dept. Store and have it fighting on its own with its amazingly high Special Attack (for that point) immediately.

Raikou, Entei, and Suicune begin roaming Johto as soon as you reach the Burnt Tower and set off an Event Flag, which is just before the 4th Gym. At a time when most of your Pokémon will be in the 25-30 range and not even at their final forms, you can feasibly catch them at level 40 if you're extremely lucky with the Random Number God.

Distracted by the Sexy: You will occasionally get calls from other trainers about how they failed to catch a Pokémon because they were distracted by a passing Beauty.

Door to Before: The duo of Route 45 and Route 46 acts as this for Johto as a whole, connecting Blackthorn City, the location of Johto's 8th and last gym, to Route 29, the game's very first route, located right outside New Bark, the player's hometown. The pair's practical contribution as a Door, however, is limited by the fact that you will almost certainly already have been using Fly for a while by the time you leave Blackthorn. It is also a one-way Door, given that Route 46 can only be traversed towards the South, since it's made up of many of the Pokémon world's infamous ledges.

Dub Name Change: Due to the games' lack of kanji (which makes it easier to keep track of the Japanese language's nightmarish amount of homophones), the Bell Tower was mistranslated as Tin Tower. The association with the Clear Bell and the fact that the remakes call the path to it Bellchime Trail and have bells on the top of the tower ended up with it being retranslated in the remakes.

Dummied Out: The Fuchsia City Safari Zone from Pokémon Red and Blue is present in the games, but it can only be entered by hacking or using a cheat device to reach an otherwise inaccessible warp tile in the walls of the old entrance building. While the entire area is mapped out, it's also been redesigned to only use up one area and there are no random encounter tables set up for the grass tiles, just the water tiles (and only for surfing).

Dungeon Bypass: You can skip all of the trainers in Misty's Gym by walking around the pool and using Surf to get across the water.

Like its predecessors, Gold and Silver have a bizarre TM list, which includes the elemental punches and Endure. This is also the only generation where Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are absent as TMs. It wasn't until Ruby and Sapphire that the TM list starts having reoccurring moves across Generations.

Due to the way the programming handles how Standard Status Effects are inflicted, Tri Attack can inflict Burns on Fire-types and Freeze on Ice-types.

A Pokémon's gender is based off a hidden value that modifies the Attack stat (with the higher numbers yielding males), while whether or not a Mon is Shiny is based off specific combinations of these values for every stat. Later games use a separate hidden value that does not influence stats to determine gender and Shininess.

The hidden values that modify Special Attack and Special Defense are always identical to remain compatible with the previous games' single Special stat, while the hidden value that modifies HP is determined by a formula utilizing the other stats (also to remain compatible). The later games have both values randomized.

Berries in these games have generic names instead of the exotic-sounding ones that the later entries have.

The Mystery Gift has a completely different function from later games. Connecting 2 Game Boys via the infrared port will give both participating players a randomized gift, which can range from furniture or dolls for the player character's room, medicine, battle items, the 4 otherwise unobtainable (in Gold and Silver) Evolution Stones, or one of the Berries.

The game mascots are not exclusive to their version like in later installments. The Legendary that isn't on your copy's cover can be encountered much later in the game after obtaining their "Wing" item in Kanto, though they won't have their Secret Art due to being at a higher level.

The player's mother doesn't heal Pokémon since she handles the player's finances instead. The professor does that via a healing device in his lab.

Eternal Equinox: Present, but played with, as it is not split evenly between 12 hour days and 12 hour nights. Instead, it is split between Morning (4am-9:59am), Day (10am-5:59pm) and Night (6pm-3:59am).

Final Boss: You actually get two, and The Rival is not one of them. The champion trainer in this game is Lance at the League, but then several more game hours later, you meet Red of Red and Blue, who is the True Final Boss and the strongest opponent in the game.

First Town: The player starts off in New Bark Town of course, a small town with the only notable landmark being Prof. Elm's lab.

Forced Level-Grinding: The cities tend to have Pokemon trainers that are at a higher level than the Pokemon (and sometimes even the other trainers) surrounding them. It reaches a head in the late game, where (for example) the Mahogany gym's trainers are all around level 20-25 while the Pokemon in the area just preceeding them are only around level 15, and the Blackthorn gym has trainers in the low-mid 30s while the Pokemon surrounding them are around level 20-25. It reaches a head in Victory Road, where trainers are level around 40-45 while the Pokemon surrounding them are still only level 30-35.

After you get your Pokégear and set the date on it, your mother asks if you know how to use the phone feature. You could answer yes or no to this. Saying yes will only change the sentence, "I'll read the instructions. Turn the POKéGEAR on and select the PHONE icon," to "Don't you just turn the POKéGEAR on and select the PHONE icon?" The rest continues telling how to use the phone regardless.

Notably averted with the trainer near the beginning of the game who shows you how to catch Pokémon. Gold and Silver are pretty much the only games in the main series in which you have the option to refuse the man's offer.

G-Rated Sex: When leaving a male and a female Pokémon in the daycare together (or some genderless ones like Ditto), they have a chance of leaving an egg, depending on their "interest" in each other.

The gender of a Pokémon is based on a randomized hidden value that modifies the Attack stat; higher values result in male Pokémon (unless the species is purely female) and thus they're physically stronger. This was in place to maintain compatibility with the previous games, in which all Pokémon save for the Nidoran families were genderless. How this affect the female zigzagged on species-to-species basis though, depending on whether they can make use of physical attacks themselves.

Averted with Shiny Pokémon. For some species like the starters, it is impossible to have a Shiny female due to the values required for both conflicting with each other. While highly valued for rarity, shininess it does not necessary make the Pokémon better; they have about average potential compared to normal-colored Pokémon of the same species.

Ghost Town: Cinnabar Island has become this over the Time Skip. Because of the volcanic eruption that destroyed most of the town, the inhabitants and Pokémon were forced to flee; the only people who can still be found in Cinnabar reside in the Pokémon Center, the only building that wasn't destroyed.

Good Taming, Evil Taming: The game introduced a mechanic to determine how much a Pokémon likes its trainer. It takes a lot of work to get a Pokeémon to dislike you, like letting it faint a lot and using bad-tasting items, with the only real benefit being to power up the move Frustration(when there are many better moves anyway).

Finding most Pokémon introduced in this generation can be difficult as not only trainers tend to use previous mons a lot more, but some of them can only be found by methods not recorded by the Pokédex.

For breeding, Pokémon are grouped in Egg Groups to determine which ones are compatible; if 2 Pokémon left in the Day Care share an Egg Group they'll eventually produce an egg. The game never tells you what the Eggs Groups are bar vague hints about how certain species can or can't breed with others, necessitating looking them up or good old trial-and-error. Similarly, some Pokémon can learn new moves only obtainable via breeding with specific species that know the moves, which again the games don't tell you about or what Pokémon get which moves. This isn't exclusive to these games either; every game afterward forces you to look this info up.

Have a Gay Old Time: One of the Trainers in the Burned Tower (removed in Crystal) is named Dick. A trainer in the "Firebreather" class, no less. It's probably not a coincidence that his name was changed to Richard in the remakes.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Starting from this generation, Pokémon under the invulnerability phase thanks to Dig and Fly cannot avoid getting hit by Earthquake/Magnitude and Thunder respectively. They also take double damage while under those aforementioned phases.

Earl speaks entirely in broken English, though in his Pokémon Stadium 2 appearance, he speaks normally so people could understand him, as he gave hints and advice that were imperative to battling.

An Interior Designer Is You: You can decorate your room with various dolls and such, thanks to Mystery Gifts. Your mother can also buy things with the money you sent home after battles.

Late Character Syndrome: All the Dark-type Pokemon save Umbreon (which can be obtained via evolving an Eevee with high happiness at night) and Sneasel (in Crystal only) were unfortunately hit with this, as practically all of them were relegated to the post game Kanto.

Lethal Lava Land: Clair's Gym in Blackthorn is filled with lava pools. You can't fall in, but the Gym's puzzle requires that you move boulders into the lava to create makeshift bridges.

Lost Woods: Ilex Forest. Not only does it play the cave music but the high treetops block out sunlight so it always appears to have a night palate. Viridian Forest subverts this because the forest itself is no longer a separate dungeon.

Your score for the Bug Catching Contest is based largely off of the hidden values of the stats of the Pokémon you caught and whether or not their values are odd, which you have no control over. Because of this, it is possible to catch the rare Scyther and still lose to an opponent with a Metapod just because their randomly generated stats were aligned right.

Finding Raikou, Entei and Suicine (or just the former two in Crystal), who switch routes whenever the player does. The "Area" option in the Pokédex helps track them down, but meeting them for the first time to just add the "Seen" entry is a matter of pure luck.

Mascot Mook: Ho-Oh for Gold, Lugia for Silver, and Suicune for Crystal.

Musical Spoiler: The souvenir shop in Mahogany Town (which is actually a front for the Team Rocket HQ) already has enough cues to indicate something is wrong about it; the biggest giveaway, however, is the unusual music that plays within the store.

The move Psychic had its secondary effect of lowering Special (in this game changed to lowering Special Defense) lowered from 30% to 10%.

Blizzard's accuracy was reduced from 90% to 70%.

The Frozen status is no longer permanent, cannot be inflicted during intense sunlight (though using Sunny Day does not automatically thaw out previously Frozen Pokémon), and can be removed by having the Frozen Mon use certain Fire attacks or will eventually wear off on its own.

Fire Blast had its chance to inflict the Burn status lowered from 30% to 10%.

Partial trapping moves like Wrap and Fire Spin no longer prevent the target from attacking for their duration.

The Base Power of Dig was reduced from 100 to 60.

Anything with a decent Special stat in the first games had it assigned to either the new Special Attack or Special Defense, while the other stat got a lower value. For example, Chansey's good 105 Special was assigned to its Special Defense while its Special Attack became a pathetic 35, making it weaker than many unevolved Mons.

Slash, Razor Leaf, and Crabhammer now score critical hits only slightly more often than regular moves, rather than almost 100% of the time, as in Generation 1. This has the side effect of nerfing some Pokemon who relied on these near-guaranteed criticals, such as Persian.

Meaningful Name: A Male Swimmer on Route 19 is named Tucker, who is panting heavily, clearly exhausted. Or in other words, tuckered out.

Some Pokémon have Egg Moves listed for them that are impossible to obtain, whether because they don't have genders and cannot breed with anything other than Ditto (like Staryu) or because no eligible breeding partners can legitimately get those moves (Bulbasaur, Oddish, and Snorlax get Charm but nothing they can breed with learns it).

The game considers the Pokédex as complete even if the slot 151, which is almost in the middle of the Old Pokédex, doesn't even have the "Seen" entry. The slot is obviously reserved for the event-exclusive Mew, which (in theory) can't be obtained without outside help (the same can be said for Celebi, which is the number 251, but it is much less glaring in Celebi's case, because if its slot doesn't have an entry, the Pokédex simply won't scroll past the slot 250) .

My Name Is ???: This is how the rival first introduces himself. Of course the player is supposed to name the rival themselves but many a young kid actually still picked "???" as the real name.

Noob Cave: Union Cave which for the first time in the series is an actual cave.

Nostalgia Level: For the only time in the series' history the player is able to travel back to a previous region. After beating the Champion the player travels to Kanto to defeat all eight of its gym leaders. While there the player also meets several characters from the previous games, sees what has changed on three years worth of time, and the True Final Boss is the protagonist from the previous games.

Numbered Sequels: Subverted; the Working Title of the games was Pocket Monsters 2: Gold and Silver, but the number was dropped in the final title.

The Special stat has been split into two distinct stats, Special Attack and Special Defense, to avert One Stat to Rule Them All.

Many additions have to made to balance out the Psychic-type. The new Steel- and Dark-types have a resistance and immunity to it, respectively, stronger Ghost and Bug attacks have been introduced and accessible to more Mons thanks to having TMs, and the aforementioned split of the Special stat makes dealing with them easier on the Special side. At the same time, these two new types are weak to the formerly-lackluster Fighting-type, and one of them is weak to the previously-paltry Bug-type.

Trapping moves like Wrap can no longer stop the opponent from taking actions and Pokémon don't lose a turn when they wake up anymore, preventing the infliction of a Cycle of Hurting on anything slower than the user.

Off-Model: While the art in this game was a huge improvement over Generation I, this time it seems like the developers had a few difficulties with the colors:

Because of the technical limitations, Pokémon sprites in this game can only have two colors (besides black and white, of course) . Most of the time, the artists chose the two colors that stood out the most on an artwork, and used dithered gradients to "simulate" the other colors. Which didn't save some Pokémon from ending up with rather unusual color palettes, such as Bulbasaur's skin being exactly of the same color as its bulb instead of being bluish (the same applies to its evolutions) , the Weepinbell family having green bodies instead of yellow, Tentacool's tentacles being blue instead of gray, etc.

Limitations aside, there also seem to be bad choices or blatant mistakes in a few cases: Ekans is pink instead of purple, Unown are green instead of gray, Tangela is of a bright turquoise instead of a more subdued blue, Sneasel is brown instead of teal, Spinarak is purple instead of green and the entire Machop line are olive instead of blue. Most of these palettes were corrected in Crystal.

As per series tradition, some Pokémon are version exclusive. Unlike later versions this doesn't apply to the Legendary on the box cover; you can still catch the opposite version's after beating the game and getting a special item.

Some Pokémon, like the original starters and Mewtwo, are impossible to obtain without transferring from them from the original games.

Palette Swap: These games introduced "Shiny" Pokémon, which have alternative colors and sparkle when they enter battle. They are extremely rare bar the mandatory Gyarados encounter at the Lake of Rage and whatever hatches from the special egg given to you in Crystal, so it's a major treat to encounter one.

Pet the Dog: The Rocket extortionists on Route 43 will stop anyone who goes through the gate, but other than that, they'll leave you alone if you don't have any money on you.

Pop Quiz: You need to answer a series of questions in the Goldenrod Radio Tower to get the Radio Card for the Pokégear.

Port Town: Olivine City in Johto and Vermilion City in Kanto. Olivine is considered a more important port city because it has a lighthouse.

The Power of Friendship: Introduced in these games is the Friendship mechanic, which causes Pokémon to like you by fulfilling certain tasks or just walking around enough. Some Pokémon require high friendship ratings to evolve, while the mechanic is also the basis for damage dealt by the moves Return and Frustration.

Power-Up: Each badge gives a 12.5% damage boost to its associated type (i.e. the Plain Badge boosts Normal attacks), while specific badges give a 9/8 boost to actual stats. For balancing reasons, these don't apply to Player Versus Player battles.

Again, The Rival plays this role, running up and stopping you from proceeding in several spots while forcing you to fight him, including as the first trainer battle in the game, and again, whichever starter you pick, he will steal the Pokémon who is strong against it (The Rival now has his own battle theme instead of the normal trainer battle theme). The last time you run into him in a forced fight is in Mt. Moon in the post-game; he's not the Final Boss this time (at least, not in the handheld games).

In addition to The Rival, the two leaders of Team Rocket in this generation are both fought twice each towards the end of Johto, one after the other both times.

Redundant Researcher: Come on, Alph Ruins researchers. It does not take ten years to assemble a jigsaw puzzle, especially one that has perfectly square pieces instead of being shaped like a typical jigsaw puzzle.

Regional Redecoration: According to legend the Lake of Rage was formed from a bunch of Gyarados creating a massive storm that left a giant crater, which then filled with rainwater, creating the lake we know today.

Sequence Breaking: Similar to the first game, three of the Gyms in Johto (Gyms 5, 6, and 7) can be fought in any order. While the "official" order is Cianwood-Olivine-Mahogany, one could use Surf (obtained in Ecrutreak around the time of the 4th Gym) to go straight to Mahogany, do the next part of the Team Rocket plot, catch the Red Gyarados, and beat Pryce before doing the other two. Unlike with Red and Blue, where doing the Gyms out of order is difficult due to noticeable level differences between the 3 Gym Leaders, the levels of trainers and Pokémon around Mahogany and the Gym are roughly equivalent to those around Cianwood, making it very reasonable.

Series Fauxnale: Returning to the region of the original game and having a battle with Original Player Character was all originally meant to be the send off to the franchise. Given how successful it was though, it naturally was not the last game it was planned to be.

"Shaggy Dog" Story: The man in Vermilion who was laying the foundation for a building in the previous game hasn't finished after three years due to being short on funds.

Ship Level: On their first trip to Kanto the player has to board the S.S. Aqua. After that it sails from Kanto every Sunday and Wednesday, and from Johto every Monday and Friday. The enemy trainers who are on the ship with you change depending on what voyage you are on (you get one set for the initial journey, another on sailing from Kanto, and a third on subsequent trips from Johto).

Averted. Trying to call somebody when you're on the same route will have the game tell you to just talk in person.

Crystal and the remakes give each character unique dialogue for each character's reaction when they realize that you're calling them while relatively close. This can at times be frustrating (even if it does make sense) if there's a specific character interaction that you can only have on the phone (such as checking to see if someone's waiting for a battle, to see if they're holding an item for you, or calling them for a battle as the remakes will sometimes allow you to do).

The Fighting-type Gym Leader being named Chuck isn't exactly a subtle shout-out.

In the French version, the sailor sleeping on duty on SS Aqua is named Gaston.

Sliding Scale of Continuity: Definitely Level 3-4. This is possibly the only Pokémon game which carries on with the major events from Pokémon Red and Blue. The Johto Pokédex is considered as an extension of the Kanto Pokédex, you have to stop Team Rocket from returning to its former glory, and the Pokémon League is the same Indigo Plateau, and you get to visit the rest of Kanto as well. Most, if not all, characters from Kanto return, including the previous game's protagonist (who's waiting for you at the top of Mt. Silver). And many of them have moved on with their lives. The only reason this isn't Level 5 is due to having to start with a new protagonist.

Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ice Path, a cave right next to Blackthorn City. Pryce's Gym also counts because of the same type of sliding ice puzzles.

Trade Evolutions have been expanded to include Mons that evolve while holding specific items, such as a Scyther holding the Metal Coat to turn into Scizor.

Using the Mystery Gift feature can net players bonus items they can't obtain otherwise, like the original Evolution Stones (Gold and Silver only, you can also get them from NPCs randomly in Crystal) or furniture for the player character's room.

Soundtrack Dissonance: A mild example; the happy and upbeat theme from Pewter City also plays in the now-ravaged Cinnabar Island. This was changed in the remakes, where Cinnabar gets a Dark Reprise of its original theme.

Spin-Off: Pokémon Puzzle Challenge features Pokémon from these games and retells a simplified version of Ethan's (as it was released before Crystal, Ethan was the only player character as in Gold and Silver) journey to defeat Gym Leaders and the Elite Four in a Puzzle Game format.

Stalker With a Crush: Juggler Irwin certainly keeps...abreast of your adventures. It's even possible that he'll call you to gush about something you just accomplished. It's less subtle in Crystal, when he only behaves this way if playing as a girl.

Temple of Doom: The Ruins of Alph, even if just a tame example. Completing some sliding puzzles drops the floor out from under the player and they fall into a strange room full of only the mysterious Unown, which appears in 26 different forms. Crystal expanded on this area by adding move puzzles which would give the player extra treasure and some of the Unown's backstory.

The question of who picked which starter canonically does not get an answer: Red has all three starters, while Blue has none (including his starter in the non-canonYellow, Eevee, meaning that even if he owned one, there's nothing to tell which evolution he picked).

Instead of being a Vaporeon, a Jolteon or a Flareon, Red's Eevee evolved into an Espeon, an evolution which didn't even exist in Generation I.

Possibly averted with the two Snorlax: the location where the only remaining Snorlax is crashing when the player gets to Kanto seems to imply that Red canonically caught the Snorlax that was sleeping by the Cycling Road and didn't bother with the other one.

This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Poké Balls you can have made from Apricorns will have very high catch bonuses when used on specific targets (they're as effective as normal Balls otherwise).

Level Balls work best on Pokémon that are lower in level than the player's active Pokémon.

Lure Balls will grant a higher catch rate if used on Pokémon encountered via fishing.

Moon Balls get a bonus when used on Pokémon that reach their final evolution with a Moon Stone, though this doesn't work due to a glitch.

Love Balls grant the highest catch bonus possible (x8), but only if used on a Pokémon of the same species as your active one and are the opposite gender (due to a glitch it only grants this if they're the same gender).

Heavy Balls are more successful the heavier the target, and even have a penalty if used on lighter Mons.

Fast Balls supposedly work best on Pokémon species that try to flee, though a glitch makes it only effective on Magnemite, Grimer and Tangela.

Time Skip: Takes place three years after the events of Red and Blue. Unsurprisingly (and partially due to space limitations), a lot of stuff in Kanto has changed since then: a Magnet Train station connecting Saffron City to Goldenrod City has opened, powered by a restored and now functional Power Plant, the Pewter Museum and Safari Zone are closed respectively due to renovations and the owner taking a vacation, Cerulean Cave has collapsed, the explorable area of Mt. Moon has shrunk due to rock slides, and Cinnabar Island was almost entirely ravaged by a volcanic eruption...

True Final Boss: You might expect the Elite Four champion, who is Lance (himself the last of the Elite Four bosses in the previous series), to be the final opponent, but this only ends the first half of the game; after the credits, you can travel through Kanto (the original landscape), and then eventually reach Mt. Silver, where the player character from the previous series, Red, is the final trainer in the game, and the most powerful of the end bosses in the handheld games.

Unfortunate Names: A trainer you can battle in The Burned Tower is named Firebreather Dick. Unsurprisingly, his name was changed to Richard in the remakes. It's still a bit ironic, considering that the name Dick is a slang name for people named Richard.

The Moon Ball is supposed to make catching Pokémon that evolve via a Moon Stone easier, but doesn't have any bonuses due to a glitch.

The Love Ball is supposed to make catching Pokémon of the same species and opposite sex of your active one easier, but a glitch means it only works on those of the same gender. Even then it's quite overspecialized.

The Fast Ball was supposed to grant a higher catch rate when used on any of the fleeing Pokémon, but only does so for three (Magnemite, Tangela, and Grimer).

The Heavy Ball makes catching heavy Pokémon easier, but there are only four affected that can be found in the wild - Onix, Snorlax, Mantine, and Lugia. It also reduces the catch rate of any Pokémon under 220 lbs, of which there are a lot.

Wholesome Crossdresser: The trainers in the Fuchsia Gym dress like Janine. One of them is a Camper (a male Trainer class)...

That's right, I'm a boy! What's wrong with a boy dressing up as Janine?

Wutai: Although the first four regions in the main series are based on Japan, only a few towns are actually obviously Japanese-influenced, and they're all in Johto. Of special note is Ecruteak City, whose music was remixed in HeartGold and SoulSilver to sound more Japanese. Interestingly, Cianwood City, which it originally shared music with, has a separate remix that does not use the Japanese-sounding instruments of Ecruteak's version.

You No Take Candle: The foreign member of Team Rocket you encounter in Cerulean City speaks like this.

Tropes appearing in HeartGold and SoulSilver

The heart of gold combines with the souls of silver to form a remake.

Adaptation Expansion: Parts of Crystal have been added like the Suicune subplot, locations in Kanto that were left out in the originals due to space limitations (like Cerulean Cave) have been restored, brand new locations have been added, and Pokémon from newer Generations can be encountered and caught.

Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: A small one, but in the original games, a woman in the gate between Ilex Forest and Route 34 gave you TM12, Sweet Scent, to help you complete your Pokedex. Sweet Scent has an out-of-battle effect to attract wild Pokemon, so this makes sense. In the remakes, her dialogue remains unchanged and you still get TM12 from her, but Gen IV's TM12 instead contains Taunt, a move that has no obvious use in aiding Pokemon captures.

Apathetic Citizens: Subverted. At one point, you dress up as a Team Rocket member. You can interact with the citizens of Goldenrod, although you can't leave the city, and what do they do when they see you? Tell you that you could be doing good instead. There is also a brief mention of the trainers at the Gym trying to stop Team Rocket when they take over Goldenrod, but they are completely ineffective.

Lampshaded when you get to Indigo Plateau. In the original games there was a nice man who would have his Abra teleport you home, since you couldn't fly between Kanto and Johto and thus your only other way back until you beat the Elite Four was walking back. In the remakes you can now use Fly to get back (this also works at the entrance to the building before Victory Road), but the old man is still there offering his services...only to note that because of Fly most trainers turn him down. In fact, the game doesn't even let you take him up on his offer, not offering a Yes/No choice after he's finished talking.

These same changes also serve to make the other means of travelling between Johto and Kanto (the Magnet Train and the S.S. Aqua, which unlike the teleportation Abra are still fully functional in the remakes) less necessary, since one can travel between regions quickly by flying to the Indigo Plateau and then flying to the desired location in the other region, since the Indigo Plateau is now considered part of both Kanto and Johto and thus serves as a flying source and destination for all other locations in the game.

Bill will still give you his number, despite the original reason for needing it (checking the amount of space left in a PC box so you knew when to switch them) becoming irrelevant with newer system automatically placing Pokémon in the first available space.note He will, however, call you if all your boxes become full.

Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Your Pokémon will occasionally pick up Accesories while you travel with it, which it may show off if you talk to it. It's up to them whether or not they want to let you put it in the Fashion Case if you ask them to hand it to you, and what can be found varies depending on the area. There's also Shiny Leaves, golden leaves that can be found in specific grass tiles in specific routes in accordance with a certain nature. If a single Pokémon manages to find all five of its potential leaves, you can take it to Ethan/Lyra's house and they will turn it into a crown for them, and if it is your first time doing so you'll also end up with a new star on your Trainer Card.

Battle Cry: One response when speaking to your Pokémon in the Elite Four and Champion's rooms is for it to unleash a battle cry.

Owning a special distribution Celebi and heading to the shrine in Ilex Forest with it will trigger an event that ends with a fight against Giovanni.

Unlike the original Gold and Silver, you can fight and catch Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo. Articuno, Zapdos, and Mewtwo are in their original areas while Moltres is in a new room in Mt. Silver.

You can fight against Lance and Clair in a Multi Battle in the Dragon's Den. You'll need to beat your Rival at Mt. Moon first, since he's your partner for the battle.

The Frontier Brains from Platinum return using the same teams.

But Thou Must!: You're required to face the version mascot due to the plot, despite there being no real reason to do so.

When you battle Red, he is the only trainer to still use the Poké Ball battle transition from the original Generation II games.

While many of the changes the original games brought to Kanto due to space limitations have been undone, they are still handwaved in the games: it is stated, for example, that the Cerulean Cave did collapse at one point, but has since been rebuilt.

Canon Welding: An event-exclusive cutscene involving Arceus has the player character briefly teleported to the Sinjoh Ruins, a ruin far away from both Kanto and Johto that was once a temple made by both the people of Johto (or, more specifically, the ones that made the Ruins of Alph) and the people of Sinnoh. This is the only place in the game where Cynthia, the champion of Sinnoh, can be encountered.

In the minigames, the player's Pokémon get circling Psyduck when stunned.

In the PokéWalker, the player's one Pokémon gets circling stars when KOed by a wild Pokémon.

Chip Tune: After acquiring all 8 Kanto Gym badges, an NPC in Game Freak HQ will reward you with the "GB Sounds" item that allows you to switch to remakes of the original chiptunes at will while exploring Kanto or Johto. It even includes chiptune renditions for areas that were added since the originals, like the Johto Safari Zone and Global Trade Station, or places in Kanto whose original Red and Blue tracks weren't available in the originals but re-added in these ones.

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Starting from this game, bonuses and penalties induced by Natures shows colored text on relevant stats. For example, an Adamant Nature (+Attack, -Special Attack) will highlight Attack in red and Special Attack in blue.

Console Cameo: Unlike the originals, both genders of playable character as well as Red & Blue have a Wii in their bedrooms.

Copy Protection: ROMs randomly freeze up within minutes of beginning gameplay, making progress in the game nearly impossible for would-be pirates.

If you chose Chikorita, each of Silver's Pokémon will be 2 levels higher at Goldenrod Tunnel than if you choose Totodile or Cyndaquil - this is to compensate for the fact that his starter is still in second form (Quilava evolves at Lv. 36 while Croconaw at Lv. 30 and Bayleef at Lv. 32).

If you activate the time travel event and have Celebi faint in the battle against Giovanni, the opposite-gendered player character uses a Max Revive on it so they can return to their own time.

If you hack the game to have GB Sounds before you'd normally obtain it, you'll find that it's programmed to play the retro equivalent of songs that can only be heard before it comes into your possession, like the battle theme of Team Rocket or the music used when Team Rocket's invading the Radio Tower.

The impossibility to lose coins in the international versions of the Game Corner means it's easy to just grind them until you can buy Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt. Ice Beam isn't immediately useful due to the lack of good users available when you first enter Goldenrod, but the Cyndaquill and Mareep lines become a lot more powerful since they'll have their second strongest STAB move that normally is reserved for much later in the game.

You can buy Abra from the Game Corner again. While it doesn't have access to any inexpensive TMs like in the originals, it's still very strong and now comes one Level away from evolving.

A Dratini can also be purchased from the Game Corner. It starts off with Dragon Rage (always deals 40 damage), which is capable of KOing everything in 2 hits at the point you get it. It will eventually become dead weight due to opponents' HP getting too high to two-shot them and Dratini being very weak by itself until fully evolving.

If you trade over an event Arceus and do a special event in the Ruins of Alph, it's possible to get one of Sinnoh's Legendary dragons before the first Gym. A legendary dragon that shares your ID number, in fact, meaning that it will never disobey you.

The Safari Zone can get you evolved Pokémon at otherwise impossibly low levels (like a Magneton at Level 17 when it evolves from Magnemite at Level 30), assuming you know what you're doing.

Forced Tutorial: Just like in the originals, your mother insists on telling you how to use the phone. Just like in every Pokémon game, someone has to show you how to catch Pokémon. This gets very tedious if you play as a boy, because Lyra will show you how to catch Pokémon, realize that you weren't in battle mode and therefore "didn't see it", and then you have to stand around some more while she shows you again.

Gym Leader rematches. Before you can request another fight, you have to get them registered in your Pokégear. To do that, you have to talk to them after meeting certain criteria. Problem is, you have to meet them at certain locations (some of which are rather obscure) at a certain time on a certain day of the week, instead of simply talking to them at their respective Gym. There's even a couple that are gotten from an NPC other than the Gym Leader. Good luck finding all of them without a guide, even with the NPC that will randomly call you to give info about a random Leader. A good example of this is Jasmine, who appears at the Olivine City Diner between 13:00-14:00. Said diner is not important in the least outside of this one time and looks like a normal house, so you may have just overlooked it every time you were in town.

Want to find a specific Pokémon in the Johto Safari Zone? Unlike previous generations, your Pokedex area listing doesn't include the Safari Zone, so you're on your own. After acquiring the National Pokedex, you can customize the Safari Zone using "blocks" to attract different species (mostly Hoenn or Sinnoh region Mons) that wouldn't normally appear at all, but again, good luck trying to attract a specific one without consulting a strategy guide for help.

The starting favor from Elm is changed from the player fetching an object that turns out to be an egg from Mr. Pokémon for Elm, to Elm asking the player to walk a Pokémon for him. When contacted by Mr. Pokémon in the scene, Elm thinks he is just bugging him about "another egg" (as Pokémon eggs are common knowledge since Generation II-III). This is a holdover from the Crystal version, where Elm asks a similar favor before he gets Mr. Pokémon's email.

The man before the Elite Four offers to teleport you back to New Bark Town, but notes no one takes him up on his offer because everyone wanting to go there just flew there. Completely true; the Indigo Plateau seems to be the one place in the entire game from which a person can fly to any city in Johto or Kanto.

Steven from Ruby and Sapphire makes a cameo in this game; when you first meet him, he mentions how all the trainers who gave him a hard fight looked very similar to each other.

Kansai Regional Accent: Numerous characters speak with either a Kansai-ben accent or another sort of accent. Kurt, Whitney, Bill, etc.

Late-Arrival Spoiler: In the original Gold and Silver, you only found out you could revisit Kanto near the "end" of the game when an NPC stops you on your trip to Victory Road to tell you "you've just taken your first step into Kanto! Check your map!" In the remakes, everybody knows that Johto and Kanto are neighboring regions. It's pretty obvious after examining the world map (moving the cursor to the right side changes the "Johto" text to "Kanto" even if there are no Kanto locations marked yet), and not too far into the game people start mentioning places in Kanto you may come across during your travels. Even before the remakes were released, one of the trailers showed the protagonist taking the Magnet Train along with images of Pallet Town and other famous landmarks from Kanto.

Lost in Translation: In some of the non-Japanese versions of the game, the Celebi event has dialogue changed a little bit, never revealing that Silver is Giovanni's son.

Lost Woods: Viridian Forest returns to its status as a full time dungeon.

Luck-Based Mission: Voltorb Flip, being something of a cross between Picross and Minesweeper and replacing the slots in the Game Corner. A little logical deduction can improve your chances of avoiding the Voltorb, but clearing the board (which is required to earn higher payouts) almost always ends up requiring a guess between two or three cards, and hoping you pick right.

Not Allowed to Grow Up: The Spiky-Eared Pichu you can get cannot evolve due to the amount of time travel it has been through.

NPC Roadblock: Lyra or Ethan (the one you aren't playing as) will simply stand there and block your way to Kanto until you defeat the mascot of your game.

Permanently Missable Content: Mr. Pokémon gives you the Exp. Share if you trade him a Red Scale obtained from battling the Red Gyarados. If you happen to NOT talk to him in between the time you battle the Red Gyarados and receive a Kanto Starter Pokémon from Professor Oak, he'll give you the orb needed to catch Kyogre/Groudon instead, leaving the Exp. share unobtainable. However, another Exp. Share can be obtained from Goldenrod Radio Tower Lottery if the player can match 3 digits.

Rainbow Speak: Sinjoh Ruins and Mystri are highlighted in red, as well as time travel if you bring Spiky-eared Pichu to Elm. Plus, at the choice screen, names of starters are highlighted in colors of their types.

Retcon: A lot of it due to the story being reworked to be taking place around the same time as Generation IV and after Generations I and III.

Retraux: HeartGold and SoulSilver have a key item called the GB Sounds (which is unlocked by getting all 16 badges) that, when activated, makes almost all overworld and battle music 8-bit, even for (some) tracks that didn't exist in any 8-bit Pokémon games (i.e. music originating in those games, other DS games, or the GBA games). Every Sunday the music radio station plays 8-bit tracks not accessible with the GB Sounds (i.e. music that only plays prior to obtaining the GB Sounds or music from radio stations, which aren't affected by the GB Sounds).

Many additions that weren't in the originals like Abilities and the physical/special split make many of the fights harder. For example, Morty's Gengar can now use Shadow Ball off of its high Special Attack stat when in the originals it worked off of its unimpressive Attack, while the Levitate ability gives it an immunity to Ground it didn't have back then.

All of the trainers in Kanto have had their levels buffed up a considerable amount, including the Gym Leaders.

Falkner is significantly stronger than in the original game. His Pidgeotto is several levels higher and now knows Roost, a move that allows it to recover half of its HP.

Spear Counterpart: The Bird Keepers to their designs in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, which had female Bird Keepers instead of male ones like the rest of the series (including these games), as they have the same clothing and hair color. However, since the Vs. Recorder upload data is shared with Platinum, the female Bird Keepers still appear in the Battle Frontier.

Stop Poking Me!: Talking to your Pokémon too much leads to it getting angry and defiant, even if it's at maximum happiness.

Super Cell Reception: The Pokegear's phone can receive or make calls anywhere. Including deep inside Mt. Silver, an area so remote that there are only three people in it and the route leading to it, one of whom is the nurse in the Pokémon Center.

Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the remakes, the shop that's a front for Team Rocket features a sign on the door that reads "Just a Souvenir Shop. Nothing Suspicious about It. No Need to Be Alarmed."

Temple of Doom: In addition to the ruins of Alph the player can access the Sinjoh Ruins by having the Pokémon Arceus in their first slot.

Unfortunate Names: One of the French titles. The non-English European titles of these games aren't properly translated, and follow the template of "('Gold Version' translated) HeartGold" and "('Silver Version' translated) SoulSilver". In French's case, the names are Version Or HeartGold and Version Argent SoulSilver. And what does the latter spell when it's shortened? "ASS".

The original abbreviation "SS" wasn't exactly fortunate to begin with.

The Fast Ball has been changed so that it now makes catching Pokémon with a high Speed stat easier. Only 13 Pokémon outside of the Bug Catching Contest and Safari Zone are fast enough to grant this boost.

The Heavy Ball's catch penalty now affects Pokémon that weigh under 451 lbs (which most Pokémon fall under), while only four more Pokémon are available over the originals that are affected.

Video Game Caring Potential: Done with the Walking Pokémon feature. You can't help but feel warm and fuzzy when you check on your Pokémon's status and they spontaneously hug you.

Villains Out Shopping: Lampshaded. If you enter the department store while dressed as a Team Rocket member, one of the people remarks, "I never thought about it, but Team Rocket does go shopping..."

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